There Is No Light — Or Anything Interesting at All, For That Matter

A game about… a plague doctor?

Some 15 years ago, I would be more than excited to play any game that came into my hands, even if it was slightly less than subpar — and that’s an understatement. But the truth is that no matter how old I am, I would never waste my time on a game that… well… isn’t worth my time. I was more eager to play a new video game based on a recommendation, than study for my exams back then. Now, however, I completely forget where I got a recommendation for a particular game. This happens so frequently that I question if it was recommended or if I am starting to assume things. Regardless of how I heard about it, I played the game, There Is No Light, and it was… ok?

The game was released about a month ago and tells the story of a man who… uh… had his wife killed… and now wants revenge? The story was so generic that it was hard to pay it any attention. I got the impression that the game wasn’t too keen on explaining the story, and after a brief while, I discovered that a year had passed in the game, which wasn’t appropriately portrayed in the game at all. At that point, I ultimately gave up on trying to understand the narrative and decided that it would be better to focus entirely on the gameplay in the hopes that it would be more memorable. However, that also left much to be desired. Nothing in this game stood out for me to warrant talking about it…yet here I am.

The characters weren’t interesting, and their dynamic was quite vague. The entire time I had no idea who the tall man in black was, who looked like a plague doctor (the stereotypical renaissance doctors with the crow masks) or what his connection to the silent protagonist was. I’m also unsure if the protagonist was mute or if he just didn’t talk much. If I can glean anything positive from this game, only the character designs were slightly interesting…and that’s just not enough to warrant playing this game.

Giant spiders and hand monsters

You start this game as some generic-looking dude, even though this game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting… supposedly. As the protagonist, I’m unsure what his name is because I’m not even confident if it was even mentioned. Someone razes your village and burns it all to the ground, and now you want revenge…how original. Anyways, you employ the help of some shady-looking dude who looks like a plague doctor clad in black, but I already mentioned that. You have no idea how those two met because the game jumps straight into the meat of things by time-skipping an entire year of the story without even notifying the player. Not that it matters too much because the story is as plain as sliced bread.

Anyways, you continue along with whatever task the game assigns to you. Eventually, you reach a point where you fight your first boss, a Cronenbergian monstrosity made of a collection of hands and fingers. Apologies for the spoilers, but all of this is just the prologue… yes, I was also pissed that all of this was just the beginning. After that, the real game began, which, to my surprise, got better… albeit only slightly.

Anyways, I reach a point in the game where I have the choice of progressing in multiple directions, but apparently, I’m only allowed to go in one way, which leads to the first level. I take it, and eventually, I reach an area filled with giant spiders and cobwebs. As I slowly progress, the game throws me into fights with several spiders along the way, some bigger than others, which clearly means they have more health points than the regular-sized ones. The combat slowly became more complex and less tedious, and at some point, I had fun despite all the repeated deaths. However, due to the simplicity of the combat, it didn’t sustain me for much longer, and after I was done vanquishing the final spider… I was also completely done with this game.

So, there you have it. There Is No Light is an ok game from what little I played, just not one that suits me particularly, and all it took for me to come to that conclusion was an hour or so. Maybe an hour and a half, if I’m being generous… hardly. Did I mention that the character design was decent?

Do you have a light?

Not for your cigarette, but as a metaphor for enjoying this game. So metaphorically, I didn’t have light for this game… well… maybe just a little. I suppose other people might’ve enjoyed it… did you?

In Conclusion

So… I didn’t have a lot to say today. It almost feels like I was trying to fill today’s quota with as many words as possible. Luckily, that’s not the case… but this game feels like I should’ve invested much less time in it. Maybe then it might have been more rewarding…although I’m not sure.

I plan to make the next article more interesting… so stay tuned… because today’s wasn’t interesting at all. So much so that I struggled to end this article.

I’ll end this article by saying this… do what you feel is right. It’s your time and it’s your money.